 | This article is missing information about scholarly evaluation of the historical accuracy of the text. (January 2020) |
| Acts of Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Eastern icon of Thomas the Apostle | |
| Information | |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Author | Unknown, sometimes ascribed to Leucius Charinus |
| Language | Syriac, Greek |
| Period | Early Christianity |
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| New Testament apocrypha |
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Acts of Thomas is an early 3rd-century text, one of the New Testament apocrypha within the Acts of the Apostles subgenre. The complete versions that survive are Syriac and Greek. There are many surviving fragments of the text. Scholars detect from the Greek that its original was written in Syriac, which places the Acts of Thomas in Edessa, likely authored before 240 AD.[1] The surviving Syriac manuscripts, however, have been edited to purge them of the most unorthodox overtly Encratite passages, so that the Greek versions reflect the earlier tradition. The earliest external reference to the Acts of Thomas dates to c.225 in Origen's Exegesis on Genesis,[2] although this text is now lost and its citation survives via later texts, e.g. Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History (3.1.1–3).
Fragments of four other cycles of romances around the figure of the apostle Thomas survive, but this is the only complete one. It should not be confused with the early "sayings" Gospel of Thomas. "Like other apocryphal acts combining popular legend and religious propaganda, the work attempts to entertain and instruct. In addition to narratives of Thomas' adventures, its poetic and liturgical elements provide important evidence for early Syrian Christian traditions," according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary.
Acts of Thomas is a series of episodic Acts (Latin passio) that occurred during the evangelistic mission of Judas Thomas ("Judas the Twin") to Northwest India, specifically the Persian Kingdom and the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. It ends with his martyrdom: he dies pierced with spears, having earned the ire of the monarch Misdaeus, thought to be Abdagases I, a viceroy of the Gondophares in Sistan, modern day southern Afghanistan,[3] because of his conversion of Misdaeus' wives and a relative, Charisius. He was imprisoned while converting Indian followers won through the performing of miracles.
Embedded in the Acts of Thomas at different places according to differing manuscript traditions is a Syriac hymn, The Hymn of the Pearl, (or Hymn of the Soul), a poem that gained a great deal of popularity in mainstream Christian circles. The Hymn is older than the Acts into which it has been inserted, and is worth appreciating on its own. The text is interrupted with the poetry of another hymn, the one that begins "Come, thou holy name of the Christ that is above every name" (2.27), a theme that was taken up in Catholic Christianity in the 13th century as the Holy Name. [citation needed]
Mainstream Christian tradition rejects the Acts of Thomas as pseudepigraphical and apocryphal,[citation needed] and for its part, the Roman Catholic Church declared Acts[clarification needed] as heretical at the Council of Trent.[citation needed] See also Leucius Charinus.
Thomas is often referred to by his name Judas (his full name is Thomas Judas Didymus), since both Thomas and Didymus just mean twin, and several scholars believe that twin is just a description, and not intended as a name.[citation needed] The manuscripts end "The acts of Judas Thomas the apostle are completed, which he did in India, fulfilling the commandment of him that sent him. Unto whom be glory, world without end. Amen."
- ^ István Czachesz (2002). "5. The Acts of Thomas" (PDF). Apostolic commission narratives in the canonical and apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. University of Groningen. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
- ^ McGuckin, J. (2004) "The Life of Origen", in J. McGuckin (ed.), The Westminster Handbook to Origen. Louisville: 1-24, at 12.
- ^ "VIII.— On Two Medieval Bronze Bowls in the British Museum. By O. M. DALTON, Esq., M.A, F.S.A" (PDF).
The identity of Misdaeus' (Mazdai), the second king visited, under whom St. Thomas suffered martyrdom, is less certain; he may possibly have been Abdagases, viceroy of Gondopharnes in Seistan. See E. J. Rapson, The Cambridge History of India, vol. i, 1922, pp. 576-80.